Impending Mate, The Moltiare Collection: Bk2 (Sample)(Available on Amazon/SW)

Chapter 8 (Aaron)

“Again?”

I raised a brow as I looked to see Allison eyeing the chip bag I had in my hand. It was the first thing she had said since the smile she let out back in the store parking lot. Since then we had traveled the last two hour towards Cheyenne, spent another hour searching for a place to leave Marie’s SUV, and trekked the rest of the way to the train station. She had already decided where she wanted people to think that we’d gone, and though she was still thinking of what direction we were actually heading, I still allowed her to clutch the train tickets in her hand.

But I shrugged at her question. It had been hours since I last thought of food, and the events of the morning hadn’t exactly allowed me to finish what little I had. So what if I nearly cleaned out the vending machines while we waited? My metabolism was already causing my stomach to growl.

“By Shifter standards,” I pointed out before plucking the last chip from the bag and dumping the crumbs in my mouth, “I’m still a growing wolf.”

She rolled her eyes, “I’m sure there are other ways to curb your appetite.”

I swallowed the food and gave her a pointed look as I felt a different hunger taking over my eyes, “I’m sure there are too.”

She took in the look on my face and blushed before turning her head back towards the tracks. I could see her concentrating on those walking around us, or attempting to at least. If the goose bumps scattered on her arm told any tale, it would have been that I made her nervous even while sitting two feet away.

“There’s a lot of people here.” She commented absently.

“It’s nearly labor day.” I looked around, not really thinking much of the matter, “People are visiting their families and friends, or coming back from doing so.”

“And yet here I am…”

“Stuck with me?”

“As annoying and as pain in that ass as that is,” I watched Allison wrinkle her nose, “that’s not quite what I was going to say.”

I raised a brow and smiled, “Well, look at you all full of twists and turns.”

The corner of her lip twitched, “I was going to say that I was stuck beside you while you eat that god awful imitation of a loaded baked potato.”

Out of instinct, I sniffed the empty bag, wrinkling my nose just as she did when I caught the faint smell of sour cream, chili, peppers, and bacon. It smelled unpleasant, I’d give her that much, but having already gotten past that, the taste wasn’t all that terrible. Perhaps it was just the fact that my stomach had done all the talking at the machine.

“If I stopped eating them would you pucker up and give me a kiss?”

Allison looked back towards me with wide eyes as her face went scarlet red.

“No.” she squeaked.

I merely grinned in response before crumpling the bag and tossing it in the trash can to the right of me. I hadn’t figured that she would agree to it, but it was interesting to try.

There was an opening somewhere; I just had to find it. In my mind I kept thinking of what I already knew, and what I needed to find out. It went through seemingly useless facts such as her favorite color, what she normally did to become alert in the mornings, and came to the fact that she was just as unsettled by crowds as she was with silence.

There was a lingering feeling that I didn’t know anything more than I did before, which was partially true, but there was something new in the way she moved. The more minutes that we spent in close proximity, the more it came to light.